A Room Full of Mimics

[DragonBaneDM]

Hey Playground.

So I was inspired by this webcomic called Kill Six Billion Demons to build a room where every floor tile, every piece of furniture, every gold piece, is a mimic. Or maybe the room itself is a giant mimic, and the different things in the room are sort of like it's arms and legs?

Here's the webcomic page that inspired/I'm copying for this encounter (The fight goes on for a bit, and it's a baller comic, so check it out!):
https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/seeker-of-thrones-6-63/

So what I'm thinking is that statting out Diminutive through Huge mimics would be a waste of time, since this is thematically hundreds of combatants trying to swallow up the party. Instead I want to work it a bit more like a trap.

So how would you want to handle this? Right now the best idea I have is to give the mimic room it's own initiative turn(s) where it forces any party members inside to undergo attack rolls/saving throws depending on what they were next to? Large furniture tries to crush you, make a Dex save, smaller coins are venomous, so let's call that Con, and medium sized chairs make attack rolls.

I also want to think of countermeasures the party could use to bypass or defeat the mimic room. In the comic, the party uses a grappling line to crawl over the room, so that could be a way to go about this. I also never want to rule out using spell slots or class features to defeat it in a more combat-styled approach, so even though I can't run an encounter with ALL the mimics, it may be possible to allow characters to make attack rolls (along with skill checks) that would give them advantage/the mimic room disadvantage for the next attack coming their way.

Should there be a definitive way to shut down the mimic room? Like, is there a master mimic in the form of a rose/lever/toilet/eyeball at the center of the room? They destroy or interact with it, the others shut down? A command word they could invoke from a puzzle elsewhere in the dungeon? Or should I make their best hope to get through?

[Lockwolfe]

Hi.

I probably have nothing useful to offer, but I just wanted to say I read that comic and was thinking the exact same thing.

Perhaps treat piles of gold as a homebrewed mimic swarm?

[LordEntrails]

Not a bunch of mimics. One giant mimic. A bunch of mimics would not live in a single place, they would end up fighting each other over their victims etc.

Now, you could do one large mimic or maybe a mated pair working together. Incorporating some design aspects of traps is a good idea. Don't know how I would put it all together though.

[Kane0]

I believe Return to Keep on the Borderlands featured a greater mimic. It was a side-encounter, basically there was this mysterious ruined tower on the top of a local hill that only sometimes appeared, and though it was seen often enough those that ventured in never returned.

The PCs have a chance to find this tower at the hill, usually when weather encourages taking cover within. It's two storeys with one room each featuring two small windows on the upper level. The ground level is empty (including lack of a door) apart from a burnt out firepit in the centre and the door to the upper room is locked (because the upper room houses all the fleshy bits of the mimic that would give away the ruse). The walls feel a bit softer than normal rock but are covered in moss to avoid suspicion, though Dwarves would see through it pretty easily.
The mimic is actually asleep until the party lights a fire or damages the door or walls, which causes it to close it's 'mouth' and release digestive fluids into the lower room. The easiest way to escape is to cut your way out via a wall one by one but a sufficiently large blast or other 'uncomfortable movement' would cause it to expel the party all at once.

[OldTrees1]

I think the best way to handle a room full of mimics, is to differentiate between kinds of mimics in the room.


The entire room is one large mimic. This mimic will be represented in room spanning effects and hazards. The floor becomes slick with saliva and the air is a bit "off".
10% of the squares in the room will contain floor mimics. These will be represented by traps that will reset in a few rounds but can be slain.
The furniture in the room will be mimics. These mimics will be represented as the mimic monster entry in the monster manual.


Attacking the room itself will cause it to lash out (room spanning damaging hazards) and harm both PC and mimics alike.
The floor mimics can be avoided by not going near them. These will also lash out at the furniture mimics that get too close.

So I can see the part avoiding the floor mimics, while attacking the furniture mimics, and deciding if they are better off with an enraged (hurts PCs, furniture, and floor mimics) or sleeping room mimic.

[JAL_1138]

Don't go all-Mimic. Bring back some classics from older editions.

*The ceilings are covered in Lurkers Above, Piercers, and patches of old-school Green Slime (back when it killed anyone it touched, no save, no resurrection, in 1d4 rounds unless scraped off or destroyed before time was up).
*The floors are covered in Trappers, with the occasional Roper disguised as a stalagmite.
*The walls are Living Walls, with the occasional Grey Ooze and Stunjelly for good measure.
*The cobwebs are Living Webs.
*The water in the decorative font is a Water Weird. It may be a Water Elemental instead and/or also contain a Crystal Ooze if you're feeling mean the party needs a stronger challenge.
*The scraps of cloth clinging to a dead adventurer's skeleton are a Ragymoffyn.


As for the treasure:
*The coins are all Lock Lurkers. Every single one. You may need the mass combat rules.
*The weapons are all Xavers or Animated Weapons.
*The cloth over the fancy mirror is a Sheet Phantom.
*The fancy mirror with the gilt and gem-encrusted frame has a Fetch in it.
*The fancy wizard's robe that radiates magic is a Cloaker with an illusion on it.
*The grand-looking helm is lined with an Executioner's Hood.
*The suit of armor the helm goes with is an Animated Armor.

Etc., etc. There are more monsters that look like inanimate objects.

*Every chest and other non-treasure object can be some variety of mimic.

*And of course, the dungeon itself is a Greater Mimic.

[Kane0]

JAL, proud creator of the Paranoid Adventurers Guild indeed lol

Hoard Scarabs and Living Spells were among my favourites.

Edit: Wait up, what about Smothering Rugs?